


I'll Bear You Up (Lest You Dash Your Feet)

by letmetellyouaboutmyfeels



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One of My Many Daydreams About How They Could Get Together in the Show, Protective Eddie Diaz, Self-Indulgent to the Highest Degree, Soft Eddie Diaz, this is total wish fulfillment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:42:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24433756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letmetellyouaboutmyfeels/pseuds/letmetellyouaboutmyfeels
Summary: Eddie meets Buck's parents.He has opinions.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 88
Kudos: 1341





	I'll Bear You Up (Lest You Dash Your Feet)

Eddie doesn’t like Buck’s parents.

He doesn’t like to judge, or anything. In fact, he was fully prepared to like the people who raised someone as soft and giving as Buck, as strong and joyful as Maddie. But ever since they arrived a few days ahead of Maddie’s due date, they’ve been… well.

“Evan’s apartment is such a bachelor pad, isn’t it?” David comments.

It’s a perfectly innocuous comment if you just take in the words, but when you add the tone to it… there’s this faint air of disapproval. Like Buck’s failed some sort of milestone.

“Houses are expensive in LA, Dad,” Buck replies. His voice is quiet. Buck’s been very quiet, since his parents showed up.

“I’m only saying, how can you expect to start a family if you don’t have a home for them?”

“Maddie’s still got an apartment.”

“Well. I’m sure Howie will fix their housing arrangement soon.”

In fact, Chim isn’t going to, because Maddie threatened him with castration if he spent money on a house for them when they should be saving their money for their new child. But David and Jennifer Buckley don’t know that, and Eddie suspects they don’t care to listen long enough to find out.

“Howie’s a great provider,” Albert says loyally from where he’s sitting across from everyone, half on his phone, half listening to the conversation.

Honestly, Eddie’s not even sure why he’s in this hospital waiting room. Maddie’s in labor so Chim’s in the room with her, obviously. The Buckleys are out here, since this is their nephew and grandkid. And Albert’s here because, again, nephew. Technically, Eddie’s got no reason to be here.

But he’s been sticking to Buck’s side throughout this whole parent deal, and he intends to stick it out until Buck sends him away. He understands, now, why Buck practically begged him to be there when picking his parents up from the airport. Buck’s barely strung two words together of his own volition since then and Eddie’s just…

Eddie can’t leave him.

His phone dings and he looks down at it—it’s a text from Bobby. _How’s he holding up?_

Eddie doesn’t know what Buck’s told Bobby about his parents but it’s clearly more than he told Eddie before this visit. Bobby’s been checking in every few hours since this whole mess started.

Of course, that could also be for Eddie’s benefit. It was only two days before the Buckleys showed up that Bobby and Eddie had a… a bit of a talk. About why his relationship with Ana fizzled out. About how he didn’t want to mix his romantic life with his home life, with Christopher, and how could he ever find someone he trusted enough to do that with. About how he needed someone who was a parent to his son, not just a romantic partner. About how he didn’t want to date, he was glad he got out there but he just wanted someone he was comfortable with—

Bobby had looked at him with this amused, knowing smile, and then he’d just looked pointedly over at where Buck was playing checkers with Chris.

Eddie’s spent roughly a week reeling over that particular revelation, and wondering what the hell to do with something that’s been in front of his face the entire time, and he suspects Bobby realizes he’d be less shocked if someone took a cattle prod to him, so he’s been texting Eddie accordingly.

It’s still hard to actually ask for help, but he’s finding it easier to accept help when it’s offered.

_He’s not doing so great. He’d kill me for saying this but I think he’s going to need some time with you after this. Take him fishing. All that mountain man stuff._

Bobby’s response is quick. _I don’t fish._

Eddie smothers a chuckle and hides his phone in his pocket as Buck starts pacing. He’s nervous about Maddie, which is understandable. It’s Maddie’s first pregnancy and she’s on the older side for that, and Buck, the lovable idiot, looked up every single bad pregnancy statistic because of course he did.

“Evan, for goodness’ sake, sit down.” Jennifer isn’t knitting but she looks like she should be. Maybe it would help her calm down for two seconds. “You’re giving me a headache with your pacing.”

Buck opens his mouth, and Eddie waits for Buck to argue, to protest, to put up a fight the way he does—but then he just closes his mouth and sits down next to Eddie without a peep.

Eddie puts his hand on Buck’s knee. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. Some of the tension goes out of Buck’s shoulders.

“It’s taking a long time,” Buck says, his voice soft, but not in that unhappy way it’s been around his parents. It’s the kind of soft that Eddie’s familiar with, the one that Buck uses when he wants only Eddie to hear him.

“She’s going to be okay,” Eddie assures him. He remembers how tough Shannon’s labor was and the fear he had, so he gets it, but Maddie’s tough and she’s happy for this baby. She’s survived a knife fight with her abusive husband, she can survive anything. “Cedars-Sinai is the best. They’ll take care of her.”

Buck nods.

“I can’t wait to hold them,” Albert says, clearly trying to steer the conversation onto more relaxed, lighthearted things. Albert’s good at that. “They’re going to be so cute and tiny.”

“God, I know, right?” Buck’s face lights up with a smile and the noose around Eddie’s heart loosens. “Babies are the cutest fucking things, and they smell so nice, you can just cradle them for hours.”

“Honey, do you even know how to hold a baby right side up?” Jennifer asks.

Eddie sees red.

“I’m going to go get some coffee,” Buck blurts out, standing up so fast he knocks Eddie’s hand off his knee. “Al, you want coffee? Anyone?”

“I’m good,” Albert replies.

Buck’s off like a shot.

Eddie really should stay quiet. It’s not his family, not his fight, he really should stay quiet, he should stay out of it, he…

Oh, fuck it.

“He knows how to hold a baby,” he says.

“What?” Jennifer doesn’t sound like she’s being sarcastic—more like she’s actually forgotten what she said. How can people just—say shit like that and forget? How can they care so little?

“Buck knows how to hold a baby. He’s great with kids.”

“I mean, he’s a kid himself,” David says, and that—no.

Eddie realizes he’s standing up. “No, not because he’s a fucking kid. Or childish or whatever you’re joking about. Because he’s a better parent than most actual parents I know.”

David is clearly not someone who enjoys being lectured, because he stands up as well. “I think I know more about my son than you do.”

Eddie can’t help it. He scoffs in the guy’s face. “You don’t know your son at all.”

Albert looks like he’s trying to activate dormant invisibility powers.

“Are you telling me I don’t—”

Eddie cuts David off. “Yeah, I am. Because if you knew Buck in the fucking slightest, you’d know that he takes his job more seriously than most of us take anything. His job is his life. You’d know that he’s selfless in the line of duty and you’d know that there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for a friend. I know, because I’m on that truck with him every damn day. Because I’m his friend and he’s been there for me. Buck has done more to help me with my son than my own damn parents. I trust him with my son more than anyone—and God forbid, if something were to happen to me, I want Buck to take care of my kid. I want Buck to raise him. Because he’s patient and loving and he’s laid his fucking life down for Christopher and—”

His tirade is interrupted by the sound of a cup hitting the ground. David and Jennifer’s gaze slides past him, over his shoulder, and a very sick feeling slithers into Eddie’s stomach.

He turns around.

Buck’s standing there, his coffee now splattered all over the floor in front of him, staring at Eddie with his mouth slightly open.

Eddie has no idea how much of that speech Buck heard, but he’s sure Buck can hear his heartbeat right about now.

“Guys!”

Oh thank fucking God. Eddie would hug Maddie if he could. Her timing on baby delivery is impeccable.

Chimney’s beaming, out of his scrubs, looking like he just ran the LA Marathon. “Guys, come meet our daughter.”

Jennifer and David are off like they’ve been shot out of a cannon, and Albert’s not far behind—poor kid’s probably grateful for the distraction—but Buck’s still staring at Eddie.

“Your niece is waiting,” Eddie points out. For some reason his voice is hoarse.

Buck walks up to him. He’s looking at Eddie like… like nobody ever has. Like Eddie’s something—like Eddie hung the moon. “Why’d—you didn’t have to—say that.”

“Yeah I did.” He’ll go to the mat for Buck, no matter who his opponent is.

Buck swallows. “Did you mean it?”

“Of course I did.” He wants to reach up, take Buck’s face in his hands, but he resists, curls his fingers into the palm of his hand instead. “You’re like a parent to Christopher. Your parents are talking out of their asses.”

Buck blinks and looks away, a sure sign he’s trying not to tear up. “I—I need to, um. Go. See—but don’t go.” He looks back at Eddie. “Stay.”

“Okay.” He nods. “Okay, I’ll stay.”

Buck nods back at him, then scoots around him to join his family. And Eddie…

Eddie goes to get some fucking fresh air.

* * *

Chimney very carefully places the baby in Buck’s arms. “Hey, Victoria, meet your uncle.”

Buck’s heart is so full he might burst into tears. “Hey, Victoria. I’m Buck.” He gently strokes the tuft of soft dark hair on her head. “We’re going to have so much fun. Look at you.” He looks up at his sister—his exhausted, happy, glowing sister. “She’s so big.”

“Trust me, I’m aware,” Maddie says dryly. Chim kisses the top of her head.

Buck rocks his niece gently. She’s so precious and small, staring up at him with big dark eyes. It’s actually a common myth that all babies are born with blue eyes. One of the facts he read up on.

He can’t stop smiling. Whatever bullshit Mom and Dad have been putting him through (and Maddie, and Chim, let’s be honest, Mom and Dad don’t spare anyone when they open fire) is worth it to have this moment with his niece. This precious, darling life, this new member of his family.

“Don’t hog her,” Mom chides.

Buck nearly rolls his eyes but manages to stop himself. “Hey baby girl, you want to see your grandmother? Yeah? Here you go.”

He passes her on to Mom, who starts cooing at her. Buck turns to Maddie and takes her hand. “You did good.”

“Thanks.”

“I think it was a team effort,” Chimney jokes, kissing Maddie’s knuckles. The guy’s so damn happy, and Buck knows his sister is safe, will always be safe, with Chim.

“We decided on Victoria after Howie’s mom,” Maddie explains.

“It’s the name my mom was baptized with,” Chim adds. “But we decided her middle name’s Evelyn.”

Ah, shit. Buck really does start crying. Maddie laughs and reaches up, brushing the tears away. It’s so different from the last time she was lying in a hospital bed, the two of them laughing and crying in relief together, and Buck loves his sister so, so much.

“Hey,” Albert says, as if he’s just noticed. “Where’d Eddie go?”

Oh, fuck, Eddie. Eddie who just said all of those—those things that took Buck’s breath away, Eddie who just stood up for Buck in a way that almost no one in his life ever has, to his parents of all people, Eddie who called Buck selfless and said he trusted Buck to raise his son—

“I, uh.” Buck kisses Maddie on the cheek and stands. “I gotta go, I’ll—I’ll be back, but you should—you should sleep anyway, I’m just gonna…” He jerks his thumb at the door.

“Go,” Maddie says, waving him off. “Whatever it is, go.”

Eddie’s not in the waiting room. He’s not at the coffee stand. He’s not in the bathroom.

It takes Buck ten minutes to find him. Eddie’s outside the emergency room lobby, leaning back against one of the elevated concrete planters, hands in his pockets. He looks like he should have a cigarette, the picture of casual contemplation.

“Hey.” Buck jogs up, fear and hope swirling around in his chest like dust motes in a sunbeam. “I thought you’d left.”

“You asked me to stay.” Eddie takes his hands out of his pockets and looks over at him. “Everything okay in there?”

“Yeah.” He can’t help his grin. “I’ve got a niece. Her name is Victoria Evelyn.”

Eddie smiles at him, and fuck, he’d cross burning sands barefoot for Eddie’s smile. “Amazing.”

Buck can feel his face heating up and he rubs the back of his neck, trying to hide it. “Um. Thank you. For what you said. My parents are—they always made sure we had—we never—they don’t know any better.”

“I don’t think my parents know any better either,” Eddie replies, his voice low. “Doesn’t make it okay.”

Nobody’s ever understood how awful his parents are. Nobody except Maddie. She raised him, she took their place, and she did the best she could and he can’t quite blame her for taking Doug as an out when she saw it. He’d have done the same. It hurts that she left him, but they were just kids. What were they supposed to do? How were they supposed to know?

And he feels like he can’t say anything, because he knows so many people have it worse. His parents never hit him. They never starved him. Others had it so much worse.

But on the other hand—it makes so much sense why Maddie ended up marrying someone like Doug. Why he ended up being such a dick about his job, about women, to his coworkers.

Cycles.

“You know, uh, you know nothing’s going to happen to you, right?” he says, blindly fumbling for a change of subject. “I mean, not that I’m complaining about having Chris. I love that kid like he’s mine, I mean, you know that, but I kind of like having you around.”

“I know.” Eddie says it with… weight. “I’m sorry you had to hear me—go off like that, though, that’s not how I wanted you to—hear that.”

“No, seriously, that was amazing. I don’t think they’ve ever gotten their asses handed to them like that before.” Then the rest of what Eddie said catches up with him. “Wait—what do you mean that wasn’t how—”

Eddie looks like a kid standing on the high dive at the community pool for the first time, realizing how high up he is, how far down he has to go, how wobbly the board is. “I should’ve said all that to you first, not tearing into somebody I don’t even care all that much about. Because I’ve been—trying to find a way to tell you for over a week now.”

“Tell me you… trust me with your kid?” Buck already knows that. Even if he didn’t realize it went so far as to wanting to make Buck the guardian if Eddie dies.

Eddie shakes his head. Hope is swelling in Buck’s chest, pressing up against his ribs, his lungs, his heart. He hasn’t let himself—he’s so tired of putting himself out there, trying, reaching, only to be heartbroken—he couldn’t risk it and lose his best friend. He can’t be the one this time. And he never thought that Eddie—

Eddie reaches up and takes Buck’s face in his hands. It’s soft but deliberate, his thumb pressing against the corner of Buck’s mouth, and Buck can hear the question in the pause as Eddie leans in and waits, holds, silently asking permission. His gaze drops down to Buck’s lips and Buck shivers, hot despite the chill February air.

The hope in his chest bursts like a soap bubble, warm liquid sliding down inside of him, filling him, and he dares to lean in just a fraction—and that’s all Eddie needs.

Eddie kisses him softly, firmly, the softest first kiss Buck’s ever had. He doesn’t think he’s ever had a kiss that wasn’t a prelude to fucking. But Eddie’s kissing him like it’s a message. Like he’s trying to give Buck something.

His chest cracks open and a noise escapes, one that makes Eddie press in, swipe his tongue over Buck’s bottom lip. Buck opens up for him instantly on a sigh, invites Eddie in, his hands falling to Eddie’s hips. Eddie’s a long line of warmth pressed to his front, steady, anchoring, and Buck wants to bury himself in Eddie’s arms and never come out again. Eddie pulls back just enough to breathe, gently tilts Buck’s head, kisses him again, this time a little deeper, a little hungrier. Buck’s hands flex around Eddie’s hips instinctively, as if testing to see if this is real. If he can really have this.

“I was going to do something nice,” Eddie murmurs, their foreheads pressed together. “Take you out on a date.”

Buck kisses him, initiates, making it linger. “This is nice.”

Eddie pulls back, just a couple inches, and the look on his face is—Buck doesn’t even have words.

“What?”

Eddie shakes his head. “First time I’ve seen you smile since the airport.”

_Since your parents got here._

“Yeah. Well. You do that to me.”

Eddie kisses him and oh, now it’s a proper makeout session, one hand cupping Buck’s neck and his arm around Buck’s waist. Buck grabs Eddie’s elbow, his shoulder, holds on as he bathes in Eddie’s solid warmth, his reassurance.

“Evan?”

Mom’s voice carries. Buck’s breathing hard as they break apart, Eddie’s fingers worming in between the hem of his shirt and the waist of his jeans, stroking Buck’s skin.

“We need a ride back to the hotel!” Mom continues. He can see them out of the corner of his eye, coats on, twenty feet away.

“Tell ‘em to get an Uber,” Eddie murmurs.

A huff of laughter escapes him. “No, it’s fine.” And it is fine. He could slay a dragon right now, climb Mt. Everest without an oxygen tank, swim the Pacific Ocean. “I’ll, um, drop them off and then—”

They need to talk, after all, about what this means. And he wants—God help him he wants more. Not even in a sex way, just. More Eddie. He wants to feel those fingers in between his, see how they fit together. He wants to feel the scrape of stubble against his chin as they kiss again. He wants to be held, and soak in Eddie’s warmth.

“Text me when you do that.” Eddie brushes their noses together. He’s smiling in that soft, reassuring way, the way that makes Buck feel like he’s a marshmallow roasting over a fire.

He squeezes Eddie’s hands, then slides away, jogging to where Mom and Dad are waiting. “Sorry, no problem, I’ll drive you guys.”

“We didn’t know he was your boyfriend,” Mom says. It’s in that annoyed tone she gets when she feels like she’s been left out of something, like when he didn’t tell her he’d tried to join the SEALs, or when he didn’t tell her about Maddie dating Chim.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me, Mom,” Buck replies.

He’s grinning.


End file.
